Awakening
The Awakening was an event that took place years before the start of Naturellescraft. The Awakening was the the discovery of the ancient races such as the elves, dwarves, and orcs in 16th century Europe. After the Awakening, Old Europe ceased to exist and became Neuro. It was a new time and the calendar was eset, with the Awakening being the srat of the Neuro calendar History 16th Century Europe. A land of waning chivalry and kingdoms, war and treaties, science and gods: dark age in its own right when brother battled brother, when Kings commanded their people by fear of war and execution, and when men were butchered for worshiping the wrong god. Legend says it was the deluge of human blood trickling into the earth that finally awoke the ancient races from their slumber though no one could say for certain. From the expansive forests came the elves of Hightree, elegant and beautiful beings who were masters of lore and nature. They were the first to reach out to mankind, offering them knowledge to slake their bloodthirst. The humans, who were happy to bicker and fight amongst themselves, turned their hatred against the Elves. Tribes swarmed into ancient elven territories and all manner of villages sprung up from the ruins of destroyed forest. The humans had ignited a war in their fear and greed. Though once they had been enemies, the dwarves of the mountain kingdom of Jotnar could not stand idly by. Even the orcs, the most reviled enemy of both dwarf and elf, sent a tide of their strongest battalions in defense of the elven nation. Though the elves were proponents of peace, their warriors were still as fearsome as any other; with the dwarves and the orcs at their side, the ancients swept across the plains and valleys from whence the humans came and all but annihilated them. Where villages and small cities stood, they left charred rubble and carnage. Hopeful that near extinction of humanity from the European continent would be enough to teach them the error of their ways, the ancients dispersed back to their homelands. The elves returned to their forests, the dwarves to the highest of the mountain peaks, and the orcs to the arid deserts. Humanity, resilient and humbled, set on to rising from the ruins of its once-foiled ambitions. Much of Europe was in turmoil. They warred constantly with one another, forming little more than viscious warbands that would take land and life one month only to lose it all the next. In ancient times, only once did they band together when the warcry against the elves rose from village to village. They formed a single enormous if not completely disorganized army, and as one they just as soon fell beneath the wrath of the elder races. In the hundreds of years following the war, the humans were able to rebuild. Once more, they banded together and nipped at eachothers heels, but the lesson they had learned was still fresh on their minds: without solidarity, they would not survive. As the tribes grew into villages and the villages into cities, a great number of leaders rose to proclaim themselves king. Civil war threatened to spill on several occasions but it was with the skills of the brightest people of the brightest of the noble families did they avoid bloodshed. After many debates and arguments, much politicking and careful consideration, the humans divided themselves into three major kingdoms in which three noble house would be gifted the burden of rule. In Naturelles, the noble Harlaws would reign; in Enconia, the wise Bacon family would rule; in Harracktor, the Bukoski family would take the throne. With the sovereign families set into place and borders agreed upon, the legacy that would come of the Kingdoms of Men would finally be set in stone.